Veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are being called the next "greatest generation.”

That label places them in the footsteps of World War II veterans who came home, went to college on the GI Bill, started companies and helped build a strong American middle class.

So what are today’s young veterans — the 2.5 million U.S. troops who have deployed to war zones since 2001 — doing as they return home?

In San Diego, they are forming volunteer service “platoons,” launching businesses and working for nonprofit groups. They are also using the generous Post-9/11 GI Bill at all of San Diego’s major college campuses.

This next greatest generation idea? While it makes some uncomfortable, they know that they learned discipline and teamwork in the military, and that those traits are useful in the marketplace.

“Look, I didn’t join the Navy because of front-page stories. I did it because I saw the burden being carried by everyone else. And I think that sentiment carries through a lot of veterans of my era,” said Tristan Williamson, a 27-year-old former sailor in San Diego.

“I think it’s natural for us to come home and say, ‘What could we do here?’”

Williamson leads a San Diego service “platoon” whose once-a-quarter volunteer mission is hunger and nutrition. Their current project is sprucing up the Mount Hope Community Garden in Southeast San Diego.

Rory Driskell is one of the 80-odd veterans who last month dug irrigation trenches and built a concrete footpath for the urban corner plot on Market Street.

“We were gone for so long and trying to fix other countries,” said Driskell, 32, who served as a Navy aviation mechanic for 10 years before returning to get an environmental science degree and then a UC San Diego marine biodiversity master’s.

“I think it’s our responsibility and our duty to come home and make sure the home front is the way we expected it to be.”

Marine Maj. Rob Dyer has launched a nutrition drink business in Vista — and he’s not even out of the military yet.

On deployment in Afghanistan, the former special operations officer saw a need for an energy drink not loaded up with caffeine. RuckPack was born.

Thanks to a November 2012 appearance on the TV show “Shark Tank,” Dyer got $150,000 in funding from two software moguls who now own 20 percent of his company.

For Dyer, 36, dollar signs are not the only symbols driving him. He wants to hire vets — though at present he offers only sales commissions, not salaries.

The Marine officer credits military service with altering his chemistry. Prior to getting into the Naval Academy, thanks to football, he was on the fast track to nowheresville.

“My family is my guys, the guys I deploy with. So now it’s all about service,” he said.

“I’m the CEO of a company, and I think about those guys every single day. How can I make those guys more money? Because we have investors who are veterans, investors who are active-duty. And we want to create more jobs. It keeps me up at night. What can we be doing right now? We need to grow to get jobs.”

The San Diego region is home to one of the nation’s highest concentrations of post-Sept. 11 veterans. More than 30,000 already live here, and an estimated 15,000 sailors and Marines are discharged from local bases each year.

The American boom in nonprofit groups has appealed to these young veterans.

Driskell’s idealism springs from his time as a sailor. He not only volunteers with the San Diego service platoon but also with Below the Surface, a San Diego nonprofit devoted to charting water pollution.

To pay the bills, however, he works as a government contractor — not his dream job, he admits.

“The military gave me the opportunity to think a little more globally and take that step back and have the Olympian view on the world, as opposed to me, me me,” Driskell said.

The term “greatest generation” was coined by Tom Brokaw’s 1998 book about the World War II era.

The idea of post-9/11 veterans being the new greatest generation may have filtered into the language in the mid 2000s. But it certainly vaulted to center stage with a 2011 Time magazine cover story.

The premise is that America’s all-volunteer troops endured multiple combat tours in places where they were asked to be part-soldier, part-statesman.

Does that make them a breed apart? This generation of military has been largely welcomed home as heroes, in stark contrast to the treatment of Vietnam combat veterans.

Williamson says he feels that weight on his shoulders.

“Clearly the public has learned a lesson on how we treat veterans. And instead of pushing us down, we’ve been lifted up,” the former sailor said.

“We don’t think we need to be thanked — that’s not why we raised our hands, I think. So if you are going to thank us, we’re going to have to continue doing stuff that has nothing to do with us. We’re going to have to get out there and push and drive and volunteer and be of service to something larger than ourselves.”

Also, the stigma of post-traumatic stress disorder hovers over the generation.

“I’m not sure that we would compare to the World War II vets, but I do feel like we are making a change,” said Mandi Norton, 24, a former Marine Corps field radio operator.

“We want to make a difference and show people that just because we might have PTSD or these other awful battle wounds, it doesn’t change who you are and the service you can do in the community.”

Veterans by era

When they served

16.1 million served in World War II (1941-1945)

5.7 million served in the Korean War (1950-1953)

8.7 million served in Vietnam

2.3 million served during the Gulf War (August 1990 to August 2001)

2.5 million served after 9/11

SOURCE: Department of Veterans Affairs

Veterans in Congress

The 113th Congress that took office in January has the fewest military veterans since World War II, although the number of members who served in the Afghanistan or Iraq wars is growing. In 1977, shortly after the draft ended in 1973, 412 veterans were sworn into the 95th Congress. The percentage of members who served in the military has steadily fallen since.

At the beginning of the 113th Congress, there were 108 members (20 percent of the membership) who had served or were serving in the military. The House has two female combat veterans. Three of the congressional vets had served in World War II. There are 16 members who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

There were 216 veterans in the 79th Congress, 1945-47.

SOURCE: Congressional Research Service.

Educational benefits

The Post-9/11 GI Bill has paid for nearly 923,836 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to go to school at a cost of about $30 billion since 2009.

By comparison, 7.8 million of 16 million World War II veterans participated in an education or training program under the original GI Bill from 1944-1956.